BBC Radio Oxford broadcast live from Stansfeld Park

Wednesday was an exciting day for us as Lilley Mitchell from BBC Radio Oxford hosted her afternoon show live from Stansfeld Park.

The first hour was broadcast from the new Science Oxford Centre which was packed for a sold-out Summer Family Day. The show kick-started with an interview with our very own Bridget Holligan, Director of Education & Engagement for Science Oxford, and her vision for the Centre. We also heard from some of the younger visitors about the fun they were having on some of the 20 specially-designed exhibits in the Exploration Zone. And Centre Manager, Mike Dennis told us all about his favourite exhibit – it’s the Curious Camera, by the way – and our newest exhibit, the Sound Bite. Lilley even had time to fit in a game of Guess What? with BBC Radio Oxford colleague, Fleur Ostojak.

Lilley also met our patron and founder, Lady Audrey Wood, now in her 90s, and spoke to her about setting up The Oxford Trust to help educate children in science and tech and support young entrepreneurs like her and her husband, Martin. Through Science Oxford, the Trust has now supported and enthused an incredible half a million children over the last 30+ years as well as hundreds of entrepreneurs.

Our innovation centres – OCFI in the centre of town and our new centre WCFI at Stansfeld Park – support STEM enterprise by providing cost-effective and flexible space for local science and tech start-ups. Income from these centres is reinvested in to Science Oxford’s science and education programmes. Lilley moved over to interview two artificial intelligence (AI) companies based in the adjoining Wood Centre for Innovation about what they do: Ross Upton, Founder and CEO of Ultromics to talk about their amazing work improving the accuracy of heart cardiograms and Jose Maria Pena CTO and co-founder of Lurtis that develops AI design assistance tools among many other things.

The last hour of the show was spent outside where our five resident ducklings were very interested in what BBC Radio Oxford were doing. Lilley spoke to Dr Roger Baker, Outdoor Learning and Ecology Manager, about all the wonderful things in our woodland – like the bee hotel, the badgers’ sett, an ant mound, and the deer that have been drinking in the two new ponds. The show finished with interviews with four enthusiastic young scientists – Erin, Freddie, Archie and Sam – about all the fun they’d been having in the woodland and the best bits of their afternoon at the Science Oxford Centre.

If the programme has inspired you to visit, we have lots of Family Open Days coming up in September and schools can book visits online here.

If you want to listen to Lilley’s live broadcast from Stansfeld Park, follow this link.

Thanks, Lilley and the BBC team, for a great show!